


Our Tales - Volume 1: Improvised Rebellion

by Akarthus



Series: Our Tales [1]
Category: Original Work, Stellaris (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Elves, Engaged Couple, F/M, Fantasy, Guerrilla Warfare, Magic, Magic and Science, Multi, Outer Space, Revolutionaries, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space Flight, True Love, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2019-09-23 07:41:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akarthus/pseuds/Akarthus
Summary: “A man will die three times. The first time is when his heart stops and his brain sends its last thought, when biology decides that the man has died. The second time is when he is buried and mourned, when loved ones accept that he has died. Finally, the third and last time he dies is when the last person who remembers him has forgotten him.”It might take someone 5 to even 10 years to forget a men they used to know, but how long would it take to forget your dearest love?Eternity.This is the story about a pair of destined lover who are trying to retake their colonized country as guerrillas, but will they be successful?Time will tell.





	1. Welcome aboard, darling

  Chapter 1: Welcome aboard, darling

  “I remember my instructor used to say that a man will die three times." Victoria stood up from the sofa she was originally sitting on, "The first time is when his heart stops and his brain sends its last thought, when biology decides that the man has died. The second time is when he is buried and mourned, when loved ones accept that he has died. Finally, the third and last time he dies is when the last person who remembers him has forgotten him.”

  Victoria took a sip of tea from the steaming aluminum cup in her hands and sighed. “He told us that someone can only be truly dead if they are forgotten. It was just a platitude, of course, since so many of our classmates never came back from their missions. He meant for us to never let them die.”

  She set her cup down on the table next to them. The tea splashed out a little, a mar on the otherwise immaculate glass surface. “My point is, darling, you don’t have to do this for me.”

  Her sky blue eyes met Akarthus' grey, with an intensity that could pierces through soul, “I’m very grateful for this ship you modded and gifted me, so you don’t have to risk your life doing this.”

  She gestured to the interior of the ship around them. Cheap but comfortable sofa right beside her, cooking station similar to her's in the military academy, living room that looks more like home than a space ship, some plain wall paper, even a double bed for them.

  This is originally the space liner that Akarthus inhered from an old pilot who raised him. Now, the passenger areas are mostly removed, providing space for the storage of supplies and ammo for a 2nd generation rail-gun and 2 dual 45 mm auto-cannon, as well as an improvised shield projector, both of which Akarthus installed.

  Akarthus took her hands in his; both of their pointy eleven turn a little red, “No, no, Vic, you’re taking this all wrong. Danger isn’t a problem. I’m not doing this for glory or honor or our country or anything; I’m doing it to be with you.”

“But...”

“No buts. We’re engaged. I refuse to let my fiancee fight alone in a battlefield and stay light years away, doing what? Fixing washing machines? No, this is not your fight. It is _our_ fight.” A dazzling smile spread across Akarthus’ face. “I am never letting you or those beautiful blue eyes out of my sight.”

Victoria’s protests died in her throat. She had never heard Akarthus say “I love you” before, but this certainly sounded like a confession to her.

He suddenly stood up straight, back straight as a knife blade, and saluted. “Combat Engineer and Logistics Officer, Akarthus Ashborn, requesting permission to join the fleet.”

A faint smile tugged at the edges of Victoria’s lips. She proudly returned the salute. “Commander and Ship Captain, Victoria Startiny, permitting request. Welcome aboard to my...no. Welcome aboard to _our_ ship, darling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited


	2. A beginning that's not so bright

  Chapter 2: A beginning that's not so bright

They looked into each other's eyes and stayed silent for half a minute while smiling. In this time, the only thing they have in their eyes and mind are each other. This is not the kind of emotion that can be easily explained by words, so they stayed silent. They knew each other too well to understand what they are trying to express.

 Slowly, they walked towards each other and put their arms around the other. Victoria is taller then Akarthus and she is wearing heels, so she gently kissed him on the forehead while Akarthus just embraced her with his arms. It was peace that they are experiencing now, the peace that they both knew wouldn't last for long.

 Minutes later, they separates. Victoria quickly fixed her uniform, her military uniform from the academy, and grabbed Akarthus' hand to hold in front of her chest, "This is not going to be easy.  We are joining the guerrillas, or resistance if you don't know. They have a base in the asteroid belts of the Aztelan System, IGT wouldn't want to spend a lot of money annihilating them, so we are relatively safe, for now."

 "I never expected it to be easy. We are fighting against one of the largest Mega Corps in know galaxies after all." He tilted his head to a side for a second and replied.    

 The IGT Co. is the short form of Integral Galactic Technologies, a Mega Corp mainly focused on ships and weapons manufacture. They also have a few extremely high-tech, cutting edge research facilities in their controlled solar systems, which makes their product more compatible. Especially against other arms manufacture or dealers which mostly rely on third party researches or selling low-tech weapons. Like that 2nd generation rail-gun and the 45 mm auto-cannon installed on this ship, ICF Nemesis.

 The colonization of the Hermitee Republic by the IGT is been made public by different interstellar media. Most foreign countries and Mega Corps publicly condemned IGT's action, sold some of IGT's stocks, and this issue is over. No one is going to stand up for Hermitee, a small nation with only a few solar systems. Akarthus and Victoria already knew that. They know that they, or the resistance, can't rely on any foreign powers. In this space age, countries, corporations, any groups, only work for the benefits of themselves. There is no place for sympathies. 

 "So, Vic, do you have any plans of getting to the asteroid belts? " Akarthus walked to the table; pulled the nearest chair from the dinning table towards him and sat down, "You know that the shoddy hyperspace shiftier on this ship can only enter or exit hyperspace near huge celestial object right?"

Hyperspace is the most used and most cost efficient way of FTL (Faster Than Light) travel. How it works is that your ship enters a chaotic space that's in a higher dimension than the 3rd dimension, length, width, and height, but not yet to the 4th dimension. In the hyperspace, it seems that the universe is much smaller, and you can travel light-years in matter of hours. But of course, entering the hyperspace via the hyperspace shiftier will consume a lot of energies, which they are somewhat lacking a bit.

 The fission reactor installed on their ship requires a lot of time to generate the energy required for entering hyperspace.

 "Yes, one of the commander of the resistance got me a basic patrol schedule of the IGT fleet, we can jump to Aztelan III and silently reach the asteroid belts with sub light. " Victoria sat down on the other side of the dinning table with her tea, and replied.

 "You sure we can trust him?" Akarthus questions, he doesn't want to put Victoria and himself in potential danger.

 "Her. And yes, I knew her since year 2 in the military academy. She was a student there too, year 4 when I met her." She slowing blew away the stream on top of her hot tea and said, but never moved her eyes away from Akarthus.

 "Then so be it, I trust your judgement."


	3. Preparation to disembark

  Chapter 3: Preparation to disembark

  "So, darling, when can we leave this planet?" Victoria asked. Although she is the top of her class for ship commanding and piloting in the military academy, this will be the first time that she is actually fighting real enemies. Being with Akarthus calmed her a little, nevertheless, she is still feeling nervous.

  "We are not going anywhere before I reconfirmed all the system is functioning properly." Akarthus replied without stopping his work, he is currently checking the reactor for any possible malfunctions that might occur. "Our energy level should be somewhat stable, this generator seems to be capable, but the jump will basically drain the whole storage....Vic, can you go check on our food and water storage? I think it is not entirely safe, but we aren't going a long distance...Just to make sure."

  "Got it darling, take care." Victoria nodded, then turned around to check their supply level. The sound of the heel of her long boots are echoing through the hallway of the ship.

  As the logistic officer, Akarthus already thought about their supplies before hand, but unfortunately, after he bought all the weapons, modifications, and furniture for their ship, he doesn't have much money left to buy as much supplies as he wanted.

  Also this empire that they are staying right now, The Estopia Empire, are really authoritarian to the point that they haven't abolish slavery yet. In Estopia's view, decent real food and clean water Akarthus wanted should be only serve to those who deserve it. So, that led to a higher cost that he has to calculate, he can eat artificial food or even nutrition paste, but he would not allow Victoria to eat those disgusting food.  

  On the other hand, while Akarthus is checking the reactor, Victoria has walked to the storage section of ICF Nemesis. They traveled around in this ship, the liner, when Victoria is still training in the military academy, so she was too familiar with this ship to get lost, even after Akarthus' modification. 

  The lights automatically turned on as Victoria approached the storage, it's mostly empty except for a huge water tank and boxes that can be seen through the transparent refrigerator door. Akarthus said it's much better to drive around with a empty cargo than have to get rid of useful stuff, as Victoria recalled.

  The water tank is separated into two sections, and Akarthus has labelled them as "go in your mouth" and "not go in your mouth". Victoria still can't forget how much she laughed when she saw these two labels on the water tank. As anyone can see, "go in your mouth" refer to drinking water and water used for cooking, and "not go in your mouth" refer as water used for flushing toilet or showering.

  Victoria walked up and sees the little number pad connected to the water tank, there is the number 2 on there, meaning there are 2 people on board. The little screen next to it has the number 55 days displayed, which means the water should be able to sustain them for 55 days. Akarthus install the there indicators and used a equation to calculate the water usage of both drinking and using water per person. Get the height of the water then calculate how the volume of water, shows the time it would likely to last, simple little tricks.

  After confirming the water level, Victoria turned to the refrigerator, there are different kind of raw ingredient in there for cooking, Victoria knew all of them because she is the one cooking. Akarthus tried, no one wants to try it, not even himself.

  She checked these boxes one by one and quickly checked through each of it, her military uniform is somewhat thick to give her warmth in the refrigerator. The boxes are all labelled, ranging from raw rice to raw beef, from mild pepper to salt to sugar, most of the basic cooking ingredients are all included here.

  "So he knew exactly what I need to cook..." Victoria whispered, "when he isn't doing any work, he watch and chat with me while I'm cooking....He must've learned the ingredients like that....So nice of him like that...."

  Most of these boxes are transparent and sealed tight to prevent food from rotting in the sometime lengthy space journey, and their transparency make it much easier for Victoria to check. 

  


	4. More preparations

  Chapter 4: More preparations

  After she finished checking the supplies, Victoria returned to the living areas to check-in with Akarthus. 

  Akarthus was sitting on one of the dining chairs without his duster, he was oiling Victoria's weapon. It's a tri-barrel light machine gun, she received in the military academy as the reward for getting the second place on the space marine program as a major in commanding along with her power armor Akarthus stored in the weapon room.

  "Uh, darling, you don't really need to oil this one....." Victoria gently tapped him on the shoulders, causing him to turn his head around to see her, "It's specially designed by the military academy so it doesn't require much maintenance.  The academy do know us well enough to consider this." 

  "Oh, I see...." Akarthus put down the machine oil in his hand onto a little table next to him, "So, how is the supplies, did it got eaten by mice? "

  "Haha, of course not, the water meter said it can still last for 55 days, and the food is going to last at lease two month." Victoria sat on the sofa and replied, "So how is your side? Everything alright?"

  "Everything is functioning properly, I haven't test the shield and weapon systems yet, so I have to trust the all-green AI gave me." Akarthus stood up and put Victoria's machine gun into the corner of the room, "I'm going to wash my hand before touching you."

  Akarthus walked to the washroom, quickly washed his hand and cleaned off some oil mark and dust on his face with the help of the washroom mirror.

  When he came out of the washroom, Victoria already took off her uniform and her captain hat, they are on the cloth hanger now. She is unzipping the zipper on her long boots right when Akarthus came out.

  "Here, beside me." She patted the sofa that she was sitting on a few times. 

  "What is it, Vic?" He walked up next to Victoria and sat down beside her. 

  "It's just....feels so nice when you are around. I know that there is someone that can back me up, fix the mistakes I made....and even risk their lives for me." Victoria said slowing, with a soft and gentle voice as she lied down on his thigh, facing upward, "And now, we will be going on a journey that we might not come back in one piece...I feel like...."

  As Victoria is deciding on her words, Akarthus interrupted, "Tired? After we've found Hermitee colonized, we really didn't spent much time resting." He put his hand of Victoria's silk-like, light blonde hair that reached her knees and gently starts to stroke it, "You still have that charming aroma despite our lack of rest though."

  "Great that you like it, I've been washing myself regularly, have _you_? My dear engineer." She smiled, and gently puts her hand on Akarthus' cheek, "You shouldn't over exhaust yourself, you are more important to me than the country."

  "Yes, of course, I know when to take breaks..." Akarthus replied, he wasn't lying, he did in fact took good care of himself even under stress. "So...Captain Vic, are we gonna disembark?"

  "Nah....not yet....Let me lie here a little longer."

  "Of course, take as long as you need."

 


	5. Journey into the beyond

  Chapter 5: Journey into the beyond

  "Checking for potential malfunctions..1%.....45%....87%....99%...no malfunctions detected, system all green." The cold, emotionless, feminine voice of the ship AI reported to Victoria. It's a Alpha Class artificial intelligence, so it doesn't have any kind of emotion, and is incapable of symbolic thinking and complex combat maneuvers. But it is still capable of acting as a fire control system, automatic travel adjustment and some management of the ship.

  "Good work Jane, start to disembark in 1 minute." Victoria commanded as she returned to the sofa Akarthus is sitting on. She was still in her underwear with the stocking, since no one other than Akarthus is going to see her for the next few days as they travel through hyperspace, and she is fine with Akarthus seeing her naked, not to mention underwear. "So darling, prepare yourself, we are disembarking from the ground of a planet, there will be gravity and acceleration problems."

  "That's not what I'm worried about," Akarthus sighed as he look around the living room. It is somewhat organized and clean, although there are still some boxes and machine parts lying in the corners. "What I'm worried about is the gravity system failing while we enter hyperspace. This ship is not built for hyperspace and so is the old second generation gravity generator. If it stops working, things would get mess really fast."

  "Oh, don't be so worried, things would be alright, put some faith into your work." Victoria sat down beside Akarthus and said, waiting for the sudden acceleration of the ship.

  "I hope so...." He said while putting his arm across Victoria's shoulders as the ship starts to accelerate and they start to feel the push.

  They are experienced enough to put light items that would be knocked out of place in the desk or some storage areas. The force of the acceleration isn't really huge, but it's better for them to stay seated.

  The disembark didn't took long, although this is originally a star liner, it still has a super sonic combat speed and sub light travel speed. They didn't really have time to talk before their ship left the planet's atmosphere. Of course, they have already contacted the planet's security army before for their disembarkation so no one questioned about a ship leaving the atmosphere.  

  "Jane, enter hyperspace after 1 minute, the destination is Aztelan III, exit hyperspace after reaching the location." Victoria commanded without even standing up, "It's the time we test if our hyperspace shiftier really works with this old ship darling~"

  "Well....We should hope for the best..Or else we would end up maybe 10000 years to the past." Akarthus joked as he took a slip of the hot tea Victoria prepared for herself. "Ummm...This tea is really nice, maybe I should start drinking tea."

  "Then I will make some for you after we enter hyperspace," She smile, "It is better for your body than alcohol." 

  "ICF Nemesis is about to enter hyperspace, all personnel on board should enter a brace position!" The AI announced the default line of entering hyperspace which both Akarthus and Victoria knew about, "Entering hyperspace in 5...4...3...2...1...0..Entering!"

  This is actually the first time for both of them to be on board a ship that is opening a hyperspace gate. They enter hyperspace when they traveled to Estopia,when they are chased by IGT fleets, but the gate was created by another larger ship that ICF Nemesis was fleeing with.

  A lonely frigate shouldn't be the one creating the hyperspace gate, but with their current situation, that's the only choice they have. 

  Instants after they enter hyperspace, the consequences of creating a gate with such a small ship, 75 meters in length, can be seen and felt by them. Their ship sensors stopped working, the ship start shaking, and cameras that's used to display outside the ship fail - only displaying a shining blue ray. The shaking wasn't really strong, and the structure of ICF Nemesis didn't produce any unwanted weird noises.

  "So this is how entering the hyperspace really feels like..." Victoria speak to herself as she hold Akarthus' hand tight in her's, "Not pleasant as I thought.."

  "Well...This ship is small for a stable hyperspace shiftier, It would be much more stable if we have a larger ship..." Akarthus answered with a sigh, he really hopes that he have a better ship than this improvised combat frigate, "If we just had a cruiser....."

  "We will." Victoria replied with a confident voice, "And one day..we will be commanding a battleship..no..a titan."

  "Then we will have to work for it together."

  "Of course."  

   


	6. Hyperspace, romantic and dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter not finished

  Chapter 6: Hyperspace, romantic and dangerous

  ICF Nemesis has finally stabilized itself after opening the gate to hyperspace. The ship has already stopped shaking, the radar system back online, and the camera that's recording the outside of the ship is working once again. It's showing what hyperspace really look like to Akarthus and Victoria. 

  The hyperspace is very chaotic place, between the third and the fourth dimension. Unlike the jet black normal outer space, the "background" of hyperspace is a weird combination of different shade of blue, and mixed like a abstract artist's best work.

  As Akarthus see their ship is stabilized, he stood up from the sofa that they are sitting on and smiled to Victoria, "Well....This ship somehow made it though gate generation....Uh..." Realizing something, he jump up a little bit but only to find he actually is 20 cm above the floor, "I think the gravity generator has some problems...Jane, scan gravity generation for malfunctions."

  "Scanning gravity generators..." The mechanical voice of the AI quickly reacted to Akarthus' command, "slight malfunctions detected at gravity generator, the electrical gravity balance system has been damaged, the relative gravity of the ship is 0.624."

  "Uhhh...Damn it, I didn't bring any spare part for electrical systems..." He sighed as he glared at Victoria, who is playing with her waterfall like blonde hair in the reduced gravity, "Vic, I guess we have to stick on reduced gravity for a while."

  "Not that big of a deal, and now...I weight even less." Victoria patted Akarthus' shoulder and smiled, releasing her hair from her finger.

  "You are fit enough, no need to loose more weight....By the way....how heavy are you again?" 

  "67 KG, I measured it last time before the invasion, maybe a bit heavier than now." Victoria replied and took another sip of her tea, "Darling, I think we forgot to bring a weight scale on board."

  "Uh....You're right...whatever, isn't really a problem...." Akarthus sighed again and slams his palm on his face for a few seconds before he continues, "and here I thought I have prepared everything for the trip....Didn't even remember a bathroom scale."

  Victoria then puts her tea on the table in front of them and turned to Akarthus, "No need to worry about it, there are a lot of stuff that's just nice to have but aren't essential."


End file.
